Bui Van Tham is the son of Bui Van Trung. He follows and supports an independent Hoa Hao Buddhist group rather than joining the state-sanctioned one. He had previously been arrested in July 2012 and later sentenced to 30 months in prison for “resisting on-duty state officials.”

An Giang Detention Center

Activists being held at this prison:

A revised and expanded penal code took effect January 1, 2018 (known as the “Amended 2015 Penal Code”). While the previous provisions criminalizing political expression remained unchanged, they were renumbered. For instance, Article 79 (attempting to overthrow the government), Article 88 (anti-state propaganda), and Article 258 (abusing democratic rights) were renumbered as Article 109, Article 117, and Article 331, respectively.

For consistency with past media coverage, our database records the Article(s) that the prisoner was charged with (i.e., based on the version of the penal code applicable at the time of the sentencing).